WATSONVILLE, Calif. — In the third and final NARC-King of the West Fujitsu Sprint Car appearance at Ocean Speedway of the year, Mitchell Faccinto picked up his third career series win in what he felt was a long time coming at the Watsonville bullring.
“Finally,” Faccinto said. “I feel like we’ve won 10 or 15 dashes here, and I’ve just made too many mistakes in the feature to get the win.”
Faccinto would not make those same mistakes Friday night on day number two of the Fastest Four Days in Motorsports.
Courtesy of his win in the Sunnyvalley Bacon Trophy Dash, Faccinto paced the field to green with fellow front row starter, Tanner Carrick. Carrick got the initial jump and led off turn two but an immediate yellow for Sean Watts on the backstretch brought the field back together for a complete restart.
On the ensuing green flag Faccinto aced the start to keep the lead in his Stan Greenberg owned Western Metal Co. No. 37. Another caution for Sean Becker slowed the pace again on lap three. Faccinto secured another a great jump to lead on the restart, and as the leaders approached traffic the action intensified behind Faccinto.
Third-starting Ryan Robinson in the Mike Phulps owned Long Creek Winery & Ranch No. 56 began battling with Carrick for the runner-up spot.
Reigning champion D.J. Netto approached the duel but contact on lap 10 with Carrick sent him for a wild ride down the backstretch and brought out the night’s first red flag.
The accident shook up the top five, moving point leader, Dominic Scelzi, onto the podium and Kurt Nelson into fifth.
On the following restart, Robbie Price and Justin Sanders tangled in turn one to bring out yet another yellow. The caution eventually became an open red as teams would need fuel. Miraculously, Netto’s team made repairs on his machine from the previous red, and since a lap did not get completed before the next incident, Netto was able to rejoin on the lead lap.
The restart with 21 to go brought the race’s first long green flag run. Faccinto paced Robinson and Scelzi but couldn’t pull away on the lightning fast Ocean Speedway. The trio stayed a few car lengths apart from one another as they navigated lap traffic. On lap 24, Robinson seized on an opportunity when Faccinto bobbled out of turn two and threw a slider on him into turn three. Faccinto countered with a crossover out of turn four, and as the pair raced side by side down the frontstretch and into turn one, the red flag waved again.
Netto, who had been charging after making the earlier repairs, found himself in the turn two fence with Landon Brooks, ending both of their nights and necessitating some lengthy fence repair.
Faccinto jumped out to a solid advantage on the following restart with six to go and never looked back. While trying to mount a charge, Robinson made a couple mistakes on the cushion and had to go into defensive mode with a hard charging Scelzi behind him.
Faccinto held on to win by just over one second and parked the TSG blue and white 37 in NARC-KWS victory lane for the third time in his career. The win netted Faccinto $4,000.
Robinson held on to second and Scelzi rounded out the podium in his Scelzi Enterprises/Red Rose Transportation 41 machine, marking his fourth consecutive podium.
Robinson broke his own track record he set back in June at Ocean Speedway. His time of 10.734 seconds now stands as the quickest in track history.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. Mitchell Faccinto 37, 2. Ryan Robinson 56, 3. Dominic Scelzi 41, 4. Bud Kaeding 69, 5. Shane Golobic 17W, 6. Rico Abreu 24, 7. Kurt Nelson 72W, 8. Colby Copeland 16A, 9. Tim Kaeding 42X, 10. Mitchel Moles 01, 11. Keith Day Jr. 22, 12. Justin Sanders 57, 13. Billy Aton 26, 14. Jessie Attard 53, 15. Sean Becker 83V, 16. Brad Dillard 72S, 17. Brian Boswell 75, 18. Richard Fajardo 07, 19. Landon Brooks 76, 20. DJ Netto 88N, 21. Blake Carrick 38B, 22. Tanner Carrick 83T, 23. Robbie Price 21, 24. Sean Watts 98.